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Midwest Floods Dredge Up Dispute

Critics Say Building
Near Rivers Is Cause
Of Recent Problems

By

Douglas Belkin

Updated June 19, 2008 12:01 a.m. ET

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Since the historic flood of 1993, nearly 30,000 homes have been built on land that was underwater around the Mississippi and Missouri rivers near St. Louis. This weekend, the dwellers may find out if they built wisely.

As the swollen Mississippi rolls south, breaching levees, drowning crops and submerging towns, a debate is intensifying among scientists, environmentalists and developers about whether development...